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Many aspects of an interactive
system can be described by models. Therefore, there are many possible combinations
of models that can together describe an interactive system. Despite the
fact that these models can be very different from each other, structural
and behavioural aspects of systems should be considered if the intension
is to build UI models that can be used, for instance, to generate running
user interfaces.
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Structure.
Classes and objects are the main structural elements
of a system. Relationships between classes and objects, i.e., associations,
compositions and generalisations, are also structural elements. Thus, structural
models describe properties of classes, objects and their relationships.
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Presentation
(User Interface Diagrams in UMLi). Classes
and objects responsible for the visual appearance of user interfaces are
structural elements. Interaction objects are usually called widgets. Presentation
models are structural models describing properties of widgets and their
classes.
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Domain
(Class Diagrams in UMLi). Classes and
objects modelling the entities of a system are elements of the domain.
Thus, domain models describe properties of classes and objects of the domain.
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Behavior
(Activity Diagrams in UMLi). Dynamic
elements used to alter the states of structural elements, i.e., tasks,
actions and events, are the behavioural elements of a generic system. Thus,
behavioral models describe properties of behavioral elements.
Selecting the icons ,,
and you
can visualize a set of UMLi models describing complementary properties
of the following user interface:
(1) The Cancel
button is a widget. Thus, its structure is modeled in a user
interface diagram and its behavior is modeled in an activity
diagram.
(2) The List
object is also a widget. Thus, it is also described in a user
interface diagram and in an activity diagrams.
(3) The content of
the List component is a database query, which is an object of the domain.
Thus, the structure of the query is described in a class
diagram. Further, the behaviors of the query is also described
in an activity diagram. |